Thanks to DW for sending this to Liz at DCD :)From TNT's RoughCut.com
David Poland's The Hot Button
THE GOOD: Speaking of art films, I saw one on Friday that is actually a cut above a massive studio film currently doing big numbers. That film is Unbreakable. The film I saw is The Gift.
Now, am I saying that The Gift is one of the great films of our time? No. I doubt it will make my Top Ten. But it is a solid thriller, filled with strong performances and some real human insight and emotion. Cate Blanchett is excellent, as always... even though I don’t think she is a likely Oscar nominee for this performance. Keanu Reeves is very good. (And add another Two for 2000 category, two Keanu Reeves Small Movies in which He Plays Villains between turns in heroic Matrix films.) Giovanni Ribisi seemed to have gone a bit too far at first, but brings it to a rather brilliant head as his character evolves.
And then there is Katie Holmes. Women who are concerned about my occasional forays into the "macho pig" category might want to skip this. But Ms. Holmes gives a solid performance; she is charming and she can act. But the revelation about her in this film is her first topless scene, assuring that The Gift will be the DVD most rented by teenage (and not teenage) boys in the history of the freeze frame. There have been many beautiful women with great breasts in the movies, but most of them are there for looks only. As I just said, Holmes can act. She will have a long career. But her breasts put her right in the Susan Sarandon early-career category as a national monument. And it seems likely that her mammarial splendor will actually improve with age. Reality is a beautiful thing and youth contributes spectacularly to physical perfection, never to be matched by Beverly Hills surgeons.
